♪ mark: welcome to this edition of the best of with all due respect. it was a week that tested for inse vying to be commander chief. need candidate had to respond to the deadly terror attacks in brussels, and explain how they would protect the u.s. against the islamic state. mark: several of them made their case on this program. on tuesday, we sat down with donald trump. the next day, we caught up with his chief rival, senator ted

cruz. john: we start our look back with donald trump. mr. trump: i was called by a friend, he said, a terrible thing happened in brussels. i was not surprised. i've been saying, brussels is a mess. i turn on the television, i saw what was going on, and i think it is deplorable. givingou talked about the country a pep talk. when you talk about these issues, you tend to talk about them -- in negative ways the terrorists are winning. they are winning. we cannot waterboard, get, they are chopping off heads. mark: i understand that is part of your view. impliesep talk optimism. mr. trump: i would be very optimistic and very tough on terror, much tougher than where

we are now. we are not playing in the same field. they have absolutely no loss. they kill people, and don't talk about it. littleomething that is a harsh, and that particular soldier or general, or whoever it may be, loses his life. we are not playing by the same rules. they are playing dirty stuff, and we're not playing that way. we cannot waterboard anymore. waterboarding, nothing is nice about it, but it is a minimal form. we have to go much tougher. it is eating up the world now. a lot of the world is weak. what is happening in germany is unbelievable. what is happening in a small part of sweden is unbelievable. a lot of people are saying, donald trump is right.

john: senator ted cruz came out to say we should have police patrols in muslim neighborhoods in the united states. you said this was a good idea. iraqd the former master to on ourssador on iraq show. he said, this is exactly what isis would want the united states to do. how do you respond? trump: i'm ok. we have to be vigilant, careful. theew york city, we had strongest police department, amazing people. if you talk love vigilance, we were watching closer than anybody else, an amazing group, and actually cut people. mayor who isby a .rossly incompetent, de blasio they ended it. we should bring it back. we have to be vigilant, and

look, even if it is at the mosques. not: i think you are responding to the substance of the argument. you think the master is wrong? mr. trump: i think he is wrong. we have to be smarter, and much more vigilant. your career, which has been very successful, what is an analogy -- the closest decision you have had to make to a decision that the president would have to make? mr. trump: no but he makes decisions like that you are talking about lives. potentially thousands of lives. when you don't make decisions, you're often talking about many more lives. presidentple, iwatch obama land in cuba, with nobody to greet him.

i thought that was terrible. i then watched him at a press conference yesterday. it looks like he was a baby. castro was the boss. i watched him at a baseball game in cuba, while body parts are laying all over the place with threats to him, threats to us. i think it looked so bad. he should be back in washington, in the white house, where a president should be at a time like this. it looks so bad. mark: what is the toughest decision you have made in your career? one that was really tough? trump: guaranteeing vast amounts of debt to do large transactions. if they don't work out, i make them work out. i have made very good deals.

the market is great, then the market turns bad. i'm very tough on banks. i do that very often. very often, things don't work out the way you think they will work out. that is a sign of a great business person. things change. it is not how you do in the bad dood times, is how you in the bad times. mark: you talk about dealing with -- the border, dealing with isis these are relatively short-term issues. going back to you being optimistic, what is the trump plan long-term to make the relationship between the muslim world and the western world better? trump: they have to respect us. frankly, they do not respect us at all. i think what merkel has done to

germany is an outrage. i know german people who are here all the time. people that love germany. they tell me, two years ago, it is the greatest country on earth. now, they will leave. the first think you have to do is get them to respect the west and respect us. if they're not going to respect us, it will not work. this is a going on for a long time. i tell the story about general pershing in 1918, where there were problems, where they had radical islamic terrorism -- in the philippines -- it is a well-known story, i will not go through the whole process. they had a huge problem with terrorism, having to do with islam, a radical islam. harsh.unbelievably they did not have the problem

for 28 years. mark: one element would have the people respect the west. mr. trump: i don't think you can do anything unless they respect you. they have no respect for the president or our country. mark: but it's about nato. you suggested maybe the u.s. should have a different role, a smaller role. you did not say withdraw, but a different role, and nato would need another mission. : we are paying for a lot of nato. it is helping them more than it is helping us. . look at ukraine we are the one who always wants to go to war with russia over ukraine. we are always fighting, and putting up a lot of money for nato, this proportion.

we put up a lot of money for a lot of countries. we defend south korea, japan, germany. we put up a lot of money, then the $1 wonder -- trillion. when you look at our military, is very interesting. it is not really for us. we are defending everyone else. we are defending the whole world. mark: should america be the leader of nato are not necessarily? obsolete.nato is it was set up many years ago, when things were different. i think nato, you have to examine. it does not help us, it is helping other countries. i don't think those other countries appreciate what we are doing. john: you made two slightly

different arguments. one is you would like the u.s. to pay slightly less. the one thing definitely, we are paying too much. mark: up next, more of our interview with trump, including his thoughts on using nuclear weapons against the islamic state. stay tuned. ♪

mr. trump: i think i would be very late compared to my opponents running. people don't realize. i know people like to say, he was for the -- iraq war i was against the iraq war. in all fairness, i have been a great businessman over the years. to me.uncil looked there are plenty of articles

from that time, i was very much against the iraq war. hillary clinton wanted to do it. she would be such a bad president he does not have the strength or stamina to be president. people wanted to go into iraq. i did not. i would probably be the last to use it. i have to say this -- john: the last to use nuclear weapons? you would rule in using nuclear weapons? mr. trump: i would not rule it out. and, i would not tell you that. at a minimum, i want them to think we would use it. it is the worst thing that we do ask ainterviews, and you question like that, and everyone comes clean. so honest. we have entities. enemies. we have enemies.

isis is an enemy. there don't worry uniforms. we don't know who these people are. the fact is we need of a npredictability. when you ask a question like that, it is very sad to answer it. i frankly don't want the enemy to know what i'm thinking. i do not rule out anything. looking back, instead of forward, have there been circumstances or provocations in the past, where, if you had been president, you would have considered using nuclear weapons. perhaps, after 9/11? mr. trump: no. wronge, we attacked the country. i've acted not attack. we could have taken down the taliban, if we wanted to do it. we did not need nuclear weapons.

nuclear weapons are the last resort. a brilliant man at m.i.t., he is he used to tell me about the power of nuclear. i would say, absolutely as a last resort. mean we should not be prepared. where they0 minutes should have never put this on, the administration should have never allowed it, but they showed these nuclear weapons that are not in the state of prepared fitness -- preparedness . i would tell you, i would never want to use them, but we have to be prepared, absolutely perfect. mark: you are thinking more about national security. what are areas where you think you need to learn more to be

president? mr. trump: i've had a good instinct for national security. mark: i'm not asking about your instinct. it is not one area where you would want to know more? morerump i want to know: about every little corner, by do instinct.ve a good i said take the oil. inaid, we should not be iraq. it is a total mess. iran is going to take the oil. people don't realize, iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, and very good oil. now, where is the oil? isis has the oil. it has been taken for granted that the united states and the president of the united freehe leader of the world. would you think of yourself as the leader of the free world? : i would.

i think the days of nationbuilding have proven to be over. john: do you think america is the most part of one nation on the earth right now? : the power of weaponry is so incredible. thee are not talking about power of weapons, i would say, you made a mistake, get out. you cannot allow anyone to arm with the kind of weapons that can be produced. john: you talked about the notion that we are losing, they are making us look soft -- the president says everyone else says isis. it is like he is doing it to bother you. i think he does it to bother people. john: and people talk about america being the most powerful country on earth, their tight

about economics, other things. is america the most powerful country in the world? thatrump: i would say people are catching up. china is catching up, russia is catching up. we have a military that needs help. we have a military that the equipment is old. i have a friend whose son has spent quite a time in iraq and afghanistan, and he said the art weapons are not as -- our weapons are not as good as the enemies. he is so disheartened when he sees that they have better weapons than we do, and they are better weapons. mark: national security will be a big issue. you and hillary lennon are ahead andillary clinton are ahead delegates now. she was secretary o state -- mr. trump: and did a bad job. mark: you are a businessman. how do you prove your

argument? mr. trump: i think i'm smarter than she has a more competent. i have said it before, i don't think she has the strength the stamina to be a good president. in thel her at 3:00 morning, she is sleeping, and does not wake up. when you look at hillary with the 3:00 in the morning ad, she never woke up. the call was made many hundreds of times. they were calling and calling. call, butlumenthal's she did not take the call. john: do you think there's anything that she did what she was secretary of state that was good? of trump: she did a lot traveling. i think she worked hard. she was always on planes. she said she was attacked, she was landing some plays and under

vicious attack. the bullets and is of being total fraud. john: coming up next, we hear from his opponent. ted cruz on why he can stop the donald. ♪

joiningnder, thanks for us. you are now the candidate of mitt romney and jeb bush. how did that happen? senator cruz: we are seeing republicans come together, republicans unite. in the last 10 days, we have been endorsed by jeb bush, mitt romney, but also mike lee -- asut as broad of a spectrum you can imagine. i can imagine. i think the reason is simple. for some time, 65%-70% of republicans have recognized that donald trump is not the best nominee to go head-to-head with hillary clinton. he loses to hillary, and i beat

hillary. we see republicans coming together, uniting behind our campaign. are lesse people interested in supporting you then using you as a vehicle to stop donald trump. listen, the object here is to win entering the country around. we have hadgoing -- seven years under obama, seven years of misery, seven years of the -- government assault in the constitution and bill of rights as brussels yesterday illustrates, seven years that have enabled the rise of radical terrorism. mark: if you look at a snapshot of where we are here, it is not clear that you are a stronger general candidate. enator cruz: the polling

consistently shows that hillary beats donald, and i beat hillary. there was a poll showing hillary innton beating donald trump utah. bright red conservative utah. if the republican nominee cannot carry utah, you are looking at a water mondale style landslide defeat. that is one of the reasons why so many republicans across the ideological spectrum are uniting behind our campaign. rough, andics is this has been a tough fight. your wives are involved now. i was surprised by how quickly that escalated. it started with a group. he reacted, then you reacted. is this mostly personal, or is this politics? last night, we saw

how low donald trump is willing to stoop. he attacked my wife directly. whenever donald trump is scared, whenever bad news breaks for him, his reaction is to gill, yell,m, and often curse -- scream, and often curse. last night was a bad night for donald. makeah, not only did we 50%, we had a landslide victory, nearly 70% of the vote in utah. donald is scared and unhappy. his reaction was to attack my work directly. she is the daughter of christian missionaries, she lived in africa as a little girl, she is my best friend. it donald once to pick a fight, he should stick with me. heidi is way out of his league. mark: will he keep it up?

senator cruz: i don't know. .e is used to being a bully heidi has dealt with bullies in the business world her whole life. someone yelling, screaming, and insulting her is not remotely frightening. mark: let's talk about nato. he is taken on an unusual position for someone in either party to say, the u.s. contributes too much. maybe he would look at the fundamental purpose of nato, and maybe there isn't one. what would the role of nato be in a ted cruz administration? ted cruz: you are right. donald trump's foreign policy is bizarre. and it is, he got very little understanding of foreign-policy. what he does know is wrong. what he has been advocating as weakness, as withdrawal from the world, is isolationism. with respect to israel, for example, he says he will be neutral between israel and the palestinians.

and with respect to nato, two days ago he advocated essentially withdrawing from nato. now that is a terrible idea. it was striking that the day after he called for that, we saw a tragic terrorist attack in brussels, where nato is headquartered. we should not be withdrawing from europe. we should not be abandoning our allies. we should be strengthening our alliance with europe. strengthening our alliance with israel. if donald trump had his way, if america did withdraw from nato, it would hand a massive victory to putin. a massive victory to isis. the idea that donald trump would want the presidency to begin with a preemptive surrender, turning tail and running, that is a sign of weakness. and it is striking that donald's foreign policy is to the left of barack obama and hillary clinton. they are not arguing for withdrawal from nato. yet donald seems unable to distinguish our friends from enemies. that is a very dangerous approach.

mark: he would say on israel, his aipac speech may have repositioned him on neutrality. but on nato. ted cruz: he said many times that he would be neutral between israel and palestinians. the fact he read a speech someone wrote for him off by teleprompter that pretended to stand with israel is completely inconsistent with where he has been, and it reflects -- anyone who cannot distance between israel, between the idf forces that protect innocent civilians, and islamic terrorists that seek to murder us, that raises real questions about their fitness and judgment to be commander in chief. we need a president who is -- you understands the nature of radical islam and is prepared to do whatever is necessary to defeat them. and i will point out that donald's lack of knowledge and lack of understanding of radical islamic terrorism is every bit as evident with regard to iran, where he says he will keep